Ed Symkus: 10 films that changed how I watch films

Ed Symkus More Content Now

Monday

Oct 7, 2019 at 12:24 PM

Just about everyone you know loves going to the movies. I started going when I was 6, when my parents dropped me and some friends off at a Franklin Park Theatre matinee on some random Saturday for a cartoon, a Three Stooges short, a big-bug movie, and a box of Jujubes. I loved it. I still do, even though it’s now a job: See three movies a week, take notes, think about it, write a review. There are definitely more bad ones than good ones, but you never know what you’re going to get. I haven’t seen a preview trailer in a decade. I enjoy walking in knowing nothing, like when I was a kid, hoping each Saturday to be knocked out by what was going to flash before me up on the screen. There have been instances when a movie I saw made me look at things - or at least subsequent movies - differently. Here are 10 of them that, over the years, caused me in some way to open my eyes and mind.

“The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957) - A radiation cloud causes a fellow to grow smaller and smaller, destroying his marriage, ruining his life, putting him in a fight for survival against small animals. It was thoughtful, intelligent, funny, sad, scary, and it had terrific acting and visual effects. I couldn’t stop thinking about it ... till the next Saturday

“Psycho” (1960) - My first Hitchcock experience did to me what it did to so many others. It fooled me into thinking it was a story about a young woman trying to get away with stealing money from her boss. But then it became a creepy murder story. Then it became a detective story, all the while drawing viewers into its grim web of unexpected shocks around various corners. Afterward, I needed a shower.

“A Hard Day’s Night” (1964) - Richard Lester’s documentary-like (but tightly scripted) look at a couple of days in the hectic lives of The Beatles was a shot of adrenaline for this young pop music lover. It was the Beatles playing themselves, but at the same time they seemed to be real people. And they were mischievous and hilarious and there was that great music! I still watch it annually.

“The Long Goodbye” (1973) - This was my first time with a heroic anti-hero. Elliott Gould’s Phillip Marlowe mumbled and smoked his way through a hazy Los Angeles that was populated by shady people as he tried to solve a nasty murder case. Adding to the oddball moodiness were cameras that never stopped moving, and a soundtrack featuring the title song over and over, but played in different genres. It was the first time I applauded style over plot.

“Alien” (1979) - The crew of a spaceship, landing on a hostile planet, is threatened by a vicious lifeform. The story had been done before (“It! The Terror from Beyond Space”) but never to this degree of intensity or with the use of claustrophobia as a character. But the film’s real power lay in director Ridley Scott’s skill in audience manipulation, creating multiple moments that resulted in a communal reaction of people jumping and screaming out loud.

“Airplane!” (1980) - Borrowing a lot from an earlier, somber flight disaster film called “Zero Hour!” this was the funniest thing I’d yet seen. But the humor was unapologetically and outrageously silly, racist, sexist, and filled with clichés, with everything being delivered at such a rapid clip, there wasn’t time to be offended. In the midst of it, usually serious actors, including Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen, never broke character. It’s still one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen.

“Koyanisqaatsi” (1982) - The title is a Hopi word for “life out of balance.” Director Godfrey Reggio and composer Philip Glass fashioned this groundbreaking, wordless documentary filled with time-lapse photography, extremely long shots, extremely brief shots, glimpses at busy factory production lines, demolition of old buildings, huge masses of people, long rows of stand-still traffic, with everything moved along by a quirkily repetitive score. It might be about the rise and fall and rise and fall of mankind. Or about how to make Hostess Twinkies. I’m not sure.

“Toy Story” (1995) - Then-fledgling film company Pixar got together with Disney for the first computer-animated feature, and aimed it directly at every conceivable age group. It’s a sweet, funny, heartwarming, sometimes terrifying homage to the little kid in all of us. Through the characters of the toy protagonists Woody and Buzz, it successfully teaches us the meaning of true friendship. It makes me cry (happily) every time I see it.

“Sin City” (2005) - This one reinvented the way I react to movies. Based on the Frank Miller graphic novels, it was the first time I saw a comic book come to life while keeping the same stylized ambience as the source material. There was extreme violence, but it was made palatable by dark humor and perfectly delivered over-the-top, yet convincing acting by Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson and Mickey Rourke (hiding under some extreme makeup). I laughed and cringed.

“Avatar” (2009) - There can be no mincing of words: James Cameron reinvented the science-fiction fantasy film, making dazzling use of motion-capture acting and green screen work, and looping it into a visionary and epic and original story of scientific achievement, culture clash (on two different worlds), and the combination challenge of practicing spirituality and saving the environment. When it ended, I wanted to hug a forest.Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.